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13 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 12.0 hrs on record
Posted: Dec 29, 2015 @ 9:35am
Updated: Dec 29, 2015 @ 9:37am

This game -can- be a very fun game. It's easy to spend countless hours on this. You can build your own ship and gather your own crew to explore the very vast world while gaining numerous loots from defeating various enemies, both in land and by the sea (enemy ships).

The ship-building aspect is the most fun to me; different design gives you different advantages and challenges. Bigger ship doesn't always mean better. You gain parts to build your ship either from stores or from raiding other ships.

HOWEVER there are three glaring issues the devs need to fix.

- Very poor documentation. For the most part, you have to figure things by your own. Like cleaning your ship from poos (yes, your crew will poo from time to time). Not cleaning your ship affects your crew quality of life. I had to google for this simple information.
- Poor user interface. You won't feel it during early hours, but near the late game where you find yourself amassed with numerous loots, it will start becoming tedious to manage those hundreds of items.
- Lack of varieties. This one you will also feel near the late game. After you've traveled 50% of the world map, you'll know you've discovered most of the world. You've seen all varieties of enemy ships, islands, and towns.

Despite those three glaring issues, I still recommend this game. It's still a decent game if you like open world game.

Get it ONLY when it's on discount. I bought this game in a $5 Humble Bundle.
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9 Comments
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Xaliber Jul 7, 2016 @ 1:28pm 
I'll help you out: I said "it's -easy- to spend countless hours." I can go beyond, but as I have said, once I traveled 50% of the map, I've seen everything.
ape Mar 31, 2016 @ 7:42pm 
"countless" .......12
Xaliber Jan 1, 2016 @ 1:47am 
Thanks for the feedback anyway. I'm open to inputs. This review is of course my opinion, but what use is an opinion without feedback?
Xaliber Jan 1, 2016 @ 1:42am 
3. I'm all with exploring hidden mechanics, but -basic- stuff like cleaning poo have to be explained. I mean, with poo all over your cabin, your crews stats will decrease and that causes a terrible disadvantage in battle! How can it be a hidden mechanic? I'm not demanding a thorough tutorial session like some games have. A link to the Pixel Piracy wiki should suffice. But here comes another problem: the wiki hasn't been updated for years. Which is why I said the game has a very poor documentation. It doesn't have to be tutorial, just documentation would suffice.
Xaliber Jan 1, 2016 @ 1:42am 
2. As for the user interface of inventory, no, you get it wrong. That's not what I mean. It's not about the organization of space, but, as I've said above, the *user interface design*. E.g., you have to sell your loot one by one (no option to mass sell); if you scroll down to the bottom of your inventory and click "Sell", you'll be taken to the top of the screen and have to scroll again; the weapons icon look very similar to each other so you have to make sure several items you're not selling the wrong item; when your items exceed certain number, it will not show up in the menu (even when your inventory isn't full); etc.

It's about the *design*, the way the game shows information and handle user experience.
Xaliber Jan 1, 2016 @ 1:42am 
Hello Moostache7, thanks for the feedback.

1. For the content, I don't think your comparison is apple to apple. You're comparing *side-quests* (things to do) with *design*. Pixel Piracy's problem is -not- the lack of things to do, but the lack of varieties in design. You'll find the towns and islands design very similar after a while. So is varieties in weapons.
Moostache7 Jan 1, 2016 @ 12:19am 
I completely understand that this is just your opinion of the game and that you probably were just providing this as a warning to people who are casual gamers or are unaccustomed to / on the fence about the genre. So I mean no disrespect with this comment. I would just like to respectfully provide another perspective on Pixel Piracy, since I personally believe that it has more value than you were suggesting. (3/3)
Moostache7 Jan 1, 2016 @ 12:19am 
Organization of inventory space in a game like this should be entirely the responsibility of the player. It's a survival game, that's how it works.
Hidden mechanics that aren't plainly explained (you commented on the crew's poo mechanics) also make the game more fun for certain people. Having to experiment and work at becoming an expert at the game is more enjoyable to some people than having tutorials or hints that baby you through the game and hold your hand most of the way. That's something that makes FromSoftware's Souls games so enjoyable to some - exploration and discovery of the ins and outs of the game is a challenge that is very rewarding. If someone wants to remove the challenge by "Googling" or using a Wiki, that's something they can opt to do. However, inserting dissecting tutorials might turn some of Pixel Piracy's audience away. (2/3)
Moostache7 Jan 1, 2016 @ 12:18am 
I find a lot of people giving the same criticisms to games on PC, console, and handhelds all the time. The thing about this genre of game is that you have to be interested in the content, or else you won't like it; the repitition is what makes it fun to some people. One game that has gotten that criticism a lot in the past few years that everyone has heard of is Borderlands 2 - there are a seemingly endless amount of side quests, and some people loath that about the game. Many of the developers at Gearbox hate getting criticism for it because they, like some people, enjoy the game's mechanics and therefore find it enjoyable to repeat their actions. While I don't know if I enjoy the quantity of repitition in that game specifically, the people who made the game do, and so they made it a feature.
Organization of inventory space in a game like this should be entirely the responsibility of the player. It's a survival game, that's how it works. (1/3)